Life Below Water

Home to over 4,000 species of fish, 800 species of hard corals and hundreds of other species, coral reefs are considered keystone species as their continued health is vital to the wellbeing of many others. Human well-being is also greatly influenced by coral ecosystems as over 1 billion people depend directly on reefs for their livelihood and coral reefs have also proven to have enormous untapped potential for new strains of antibiotics and other medicinal purposes. Currently, 20% of the Earth’s coral reefs have been destroyed. 24% of current reefs are under imminent threat of collapse and 26% are under a long-term threat of collapse. The loss of such a keystone species would be catastrophic and there are no known substitutes to effectively fill the many roles coral ecosystems play.